The "Quality Eaters" are conquering the supermarket

Nestlé Study: Consumers are increasingly interested in quality

The Germans look for when grocery shopping ever more and more closely at the quality. Here in four consumers already counts (26%) to the group of "Quality Eater", which place particularly high demands on the quality of food. In addition to good taste (89%) and high safety (92%), food for "Quality Eater" good for health (92%) must be and sustainability aspects such as animal welfare note (81%). So a key finding of the current study Nestlé "This is (s) t Quality", which has reacted, as in previous years with the Allensbach Institute of Food Group. Besides 1671 representative consumer interviews were additionally interviewed opinion leaders 120 31 and experts from German trading company by the then specialized group Nymphenburg.

Comprehensive change in consumer behavior

"Overall, quality is becoming more relevant. Today, food quality is an essential building block for quality of life," says Renate Köcher from the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy, who has noticed a comprehensive change in consumer behavior: "It starts with the growing proportion of older consumers, the change in household sizes towards more and more one- and two-person households and the increasing employment rate of women.

Consumers are becoming more time-constrained and less willing to invest in meal prep. Spontaneity increases. In addition, the wishes of children are taken into account much more today". All of this is changing the needs and habits in the areas of cooking and nutrition.

Accordingly, for the majority of Germans, high quality when shopping for groceries (58%) is more important than a particularly low price (51%). A development that is also confirmed by a study by GfK: according to this, quality compared to price as the dominant purchasing criterion has increased by six percentage points since 2005. While all central quality aspects are equally important to the "Quality Eaters", the average population focuses far more on taste (89%) and safety (80%) than on health (62%) and sustainability aspects such as species-appropriate animal husbandry (58%).

"Quality Eater": Female, wealthy, 30 years and older

The connection between belonging to a certain social class and the quality awareness of food is shown again. "Quality Eaters" are not only mostly female (62%) and older than 30 years, but also generally have an above-average education and have a higher household income. On average, they spend more money on food each month than the rest of the population.

In addition to classic shopping locations, the "Quality Eater" chooses weekly markets (60%, total 44%) and farm shops (42%, 29%) more often than average as alternatives when shopping for groceries. This also meets his desire to find out about the origin of his food. According to the Nestlé nutritional typology, two out of three "Quality Eaters" (67%) come from the group of health-conscious people, which combines the three nutritional types nest-warmers, problem-conscious people and health idealists (population average: 47%). The time constrained group (Harried and Modern Multi-Optional) contributes 28% to the group of "Quality Eaters" (average: 33%). As expected, the group of the uninterested (excessive and dispassionate) only make up five percent of the "quality eaters" (average: 20%).

Consumers find it difficult to judge quality

The majority of consumers still find it difficult to judge the quality of food (58%). This is particularly the case with packaged foods. And even the "Quality Eater" hardly has an overview (60%). While two-thirds of Germans see the greatest risk to quality in cultivation, rearing and processing of the products, the importance of transport and a possible interruption in the cold chain is significantly underestimated. Sustainability aspects in particular are therefore often difficult for consumers to assess.

Nevertheless, Germans rate the quality of food as good to very good (76%). At the same time, many consumers today have a latent distrust of food manufacturers and controls. Just 20 percent believe that the quality of food has improved in recent years. However, more than 40 percent believe that food today is less healthy and more contaminated with pollutants.

The majority of the media evaluate food critically

Consumers - as well as opinion leaders - do not give the media a good report: Consumers can almost never remember positive reports in connection with food quality (4%), the media usually reported critically (58%). Opinion leaders from politics, the media and associations also have doubts about the objectivity of media reporting and often see it as too critical, although food quality has improved in recent years according to every second person.

For 51 percent of the opinion leaders, the quality of food is better today than it was five to ten years ago. However, in her opinion, consumers are only able to a limited extent to assess the quality of food. In their opinion (69%) they lack quality awareness and judgement. They cite a lack of interest on the part of consumers as reasons on the one hand, and a poor declaration of the products on the other. However, they also see a need to catch up in the food industry in terms of transparency in the production chain and when it comes to sustainability. So it's no wonder that "regionality" is a strong trend in the food sector and a kind of "auxiliary factor" for consumers. Here the consumer has the feeling of being "close" to the production, of supporting regional suppliers in the long term and of doing a service to environmental aspects such as short transport routes.

Retail uses quality dimensions for profiling

In the food trade, the quality orientation of the consumer is judged ambivalently. "On the one hand consumers demand high quality, on the other hand they are not willing to pay more for it," summarizes Norbert Wittmann, CEO of the Nymphenburg Group. However, retailers self-critically note that they have educated consumers to do so through years of price wars. It will also be difficult in the future to enforce higher prices on the market for higher quality. At the same time, the retail trade is opposed to the desire for communication and transparency, fears of gambling away advantages and announcing one's own activities too early.

According to the retailers' own assessment, many retailers are already using the quality dimensions for profiling to varying degrees. The retail trade values ​​taste and enjoyment as a central dimension of differentiation, which it literally stages, for example through freshness and regionality. Health as a profiling dimension is discussed, for example, via on-site nutritional advice. On the other hand, the majority of retailers currently still give the dimensions of sustainability and security under-proportional chances of profiling. Here the responsibility is mainly delegated to the manufacturers and the legislator.

Source: Frankfurt am Main [Nestlé]